PSN

Sony has admitted that it will like be the end of the week before the PlayStation Network will be online again, further frustrating impatient gamers. According to Sony's Patrick Seybold, senior director of corporate comms. and social media, "it will likely be at least a few more days" before the systems are back, having been hacked in late April.

We mentioned earlier today that Sony is still uncertain when their PlayStation Network, Qriocity, and Sony Online Entertainment services can return online, although the plan at the moment is to reboot all the systems by May 31st. Sony's online gaming services were hacked over two weeks ago and the company is still scrambling to revamp security. But, now there are reports that Sony may consider offering a reward for information that can lead to the capture of the hackers responsible for the attack.

Sony had promised a phased return of their PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, with portions of the systems back online by last week. But, after their Sony Online Entertainment portal also got hacked along with newly discovered security issues and a threat of another possible attack this past weekend, all their networks remain offline as of today.

Once again, we attempt to bring you a roundup of the week's tech news in under 6 minutes. The chaos of the Sony PlayStation Network breach continued into this past week. Apple unleashed an iOS update that addressed most of the location tracking concerns. Intel made their biggest announcement of the year with a new 22-nm 3D Tri-Gate transistor technology that really puts it ahead of the competition. Other major announcements came from the BlackBerry World conference as well as from a Samsung event. For the full list and video continue after the cut.

Welcome to this week's edition of the SlashGear Week in Review. We had some interesting things going on in the tech world during the week. One of the interesting stories was the white iPhone and if it was thicker or not. Apple's Phil Schiller insists that the white iPhone is no thicker than the black one, but it does use a different sensor and camera design. The biggest news in the world this week was the fact that Osama Bin Laden was killed. One man unknowingly tweeted about the raid when it was going on mentioning a helicopter hovering, which wasn't usual.

By now, Sony had hoped to have PlayStation Network users back online, gaming away merrily to make up for all that lost time. Unfortunately neither the PSN nor Qriocity media streaming services are functioning yet; according to Sony, they're "still working to confirm the security of the network infrastructure, as well as working with a variety of outside entities to confirm with them of the security of the system." In short: you'll have to wait some more.

Sony has been a major target of hackers ever since it's ill-fated lawsuit against George "Geohot" Hotz. The PlayStation Network attack has drawn attention from the FBI, the Department of Justice, Congress, and the New York State Attorney General. Sony responded via letter to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade on Wednesday, defending their response to the PSN attack. Now, it appears that Sony is a target once again. A group of hackers is apparently planning a major attack against Sony's website this weekend.

US PlayStation Network users (and those getting their streaming goodness from Qriocity) already know how Sony plans to protect their identity, thanks to a 12 month bundled subscription to Debix's AllClear ID Plus service, but European gamers will have to wait a little longer. The European PlayStation Blog has confirmed that a "very similar" scheme is in the works, but will take a little longer to announce.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer has published a public letter of apology for the PlayStation Network hack crisis, announcing the first aspect of Sony's promised compensation for US PSN users and Qriocity subscribers. Sony is offering 12 months subscription to Debix's AllClear ID Plus service, which includes monitoring and surveillance of potential fraudulent activity, priority access to identity theft restitution services, and a $1m identity theft insurance policy per user.